The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy (Picador 1999)
The Worlds Wife Carol Ann Duffy
www.wessexpublications.co.uk - 2 Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955 but she spent her
childhood in Stafford growing up in a Catholic family. She graduated
from Liverpool University with a degree in Philosophy and in 1977
embarked on a career as a playwright. She had two of her plays
performed at the Liverpool Playhouse and this ultimately led her to
television where she worked as a freelance scriptwriter. However, it is
as a poet that Carol Ann Duffy has gained most acclaim, winning both
the Dylan Thomas award in 1989 and the Whitbread Poetry Award in
1993. She is regarded now as one of Britain's leading contemporary
poets.
Duffy's work speaks to all generations and to all people. She does deal
explicitly in many of her poems with gay themes but she asserts that
her poetry is written for everyone. She has said of her love poems:
“When I read my love poems, I like the idea that I could give them to
the person I love - a lover, one of my relations, a friend. The "you" in
the poems is anyone”. When we read her work we should not see it as
autobiographical but as that of a poet giving voice to the emotions that
lie buried in all of us.CAROL ANN DUFFY
Like the study of prose two key words are important HOW and WHY:
how is a poet using language and why has she/he chosen to use a
particular image or symbol. It is always useful to remind yourself of
the technical terms used to describe figurative language such as
alliteration, assonance, antithesis, hyperbole, metaphor, simile,
oxymoron, personification, imagery, symbolism, onomatopoeia. There
are many others but the main thing to remember is that, if you are
going to use this language, you must understand how and why the poet
has chosen to employ it.
Remember that the examiner is looking for more than just an
identification of figurative language. He or she is expecting you to be
able to discuss the way language is working and to be able to link ideas
in with the thematic development of the poem or poems.
The study of a selection of poetry may seem a daunting task but we
shall see, as we work through the poems, that they can be linked both
thematically and through the language.
HOW TO STUDY POETRY
Begin by looking at the arrangement of the poem on the page. Look at
its form carefully. What do you notice about it?
What effect does this form produce?
Now compare the poem with the original story Little Red Cap by
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (also known as Little Red Riding Hood).
Read the interpretation of the wolf as a symbol by Judy Carrick. You
might also wish to compare it with the story The Werewolf by Angela
Carter. When you have read these secondary sources, read the poem
again and make your own notes. In the light of these different
interpretations, you can see that the poem takes on a new meaning. We
will try to explore this as the poem progresses. Notice also that the
poem is apparently narrated by the protagonist: it is a DRAMATIC
MONOLOGUE, a form often used by Duffy to allow her to explore
the lives, thoughts and feelings of her characters.
THE POEMS
Stanza 1
What do you notice about the way that Duffy sets the scene in the first
stanza?
TASK 3
Stanza 2
Look at the description of the wolf. What qualities about him does
Duffy seem at pains to emphasise?
Now look at the manner in which Duffy presents the girl. What strikes
you about this contrasting presentation?
TASK 4
Stanza 3
Stanza 3 deals with the girl’s attraction to the wolf, describing how she
followed him back to the woods that night. What does Duffy suggest
attracts the girl to the wolf?
What effect does the colloquial language used by Duffy have here?
Why do you think that Duffy uses enjambment at the beginning of this
stanza?
How does Duffy describe the woods here? What significance is
granted to the place?
TASK 6
Look at Duffy’s description of the girl following the wolf to his lair.
What strikes you as interesting about the description?
Stanza 4
Examine Duffy’s use of rhyme in the first line. What effect does it
have?
Look at the description of ‘Lesson one that night’. How does Duffy
represent the lesson in love?
TASK 12
Stanza 5
How does Duffy further represent the loss of the girl’s innocence in
this stanza?
What does Stanza 5 tell us about the girl’s true desires?
TASK 13
Stanza 6
The idea of the loss of innocence is continued in Stanza 6 as the girl
gains experience of the world.
Can you think why a mushroom might stopper ‘the mouth of a buried
corpse’?
Why do you think that birds are described as the ‘uttered thoughts of
trees’?
What do you think that the greying wolf might suggest?